Pink Moon On April 28
Not a blue moon, but rather a pink moon is predicted for April 28. Why is it called the pink moon? April’s full moon is traditionally called the pink full moon, but it doesn’t mean that the coloration will be any different.
From Space.com:
“The grass pink or wild phlox moon is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon and — among coastal tribes — the Full Fish Moon, when the shad come upstream to spawn. The moon will also undergo a very slight partial lunar eclipse, which will be visible from the Eastern Hemisphere, but not from North America. At its peak, less than 1.5 percent of the moon’s diameter will be immersed in the Earth’s umbral shadow; a very underwhelming event to say the least.”
NASA Probes Crashed Into The Dark Side Of The Moon
NASA probes, Ebb and Flow, crashed on the Moon mountain at about 5:28 p.m. Eastern time, about 30 seconds apart. This brought the year long mission to map the Moon’s gravity field to an end.
Saturn Has Pac Man Moon
NASA’s Cassini mission researchers have spotted moon from Saturn system that looks like the 1980s video game icon Pac Man. The visual is a thermal image of Tethys moon, and the surface temperature’s distribution resembles Pac-Man.
Supermoon Seen By Millions
A supermoon was seen on May 6 by millions where the Moon appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet. The moon was at its fullest at 11:35 p.m. EDT just after hitting perigee. When the Moon appears at its biggest it will be just 356,400km away, compared to its usual distance from Earth of 384,000km.
Super Moon On March 18
Check out the super full moon this Saturday, where it’ll be bigger and brighter and also appear larger as it makes its closest approach to Earth in 18 years.
Moon Has Lots Of Water: A Billion Gallons
NASA has announced that the LCROSS lunar-impact probe mission found up to a billion gallons of water ice in the floor of a permanently shadowed crater near the moon’s south pole.
Our Moon Is Shrinking
A new study on photos taken by a NASA probe showed that a clutch of previously unseen faults on the lunar surface and the moon is shrinking.
Thomas Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. said: As the interior cools, it contracts, and the crust of the moon has to adjust to the reduced volume. That causes this breaking of the crust into these small faults.
He has estimated that the moon’s width has shrunk by about 182 meters.
Source: The Moon Has Shrunk, and May Still Be Contracting
NASA Crashed 2 Spacecrafts On Moon To Find Water
NASA crashed two spacecrafts into the moon south pole in a search for hidden ice, a source of water for fuel. The intention of the crash is to throw up a plume of spray from any ice that was there.
Michael Bicay, director of science NASA said, We didn’t see a big splashy plume like we wanted to see.
Source: U.S. spacecraft crash on moon in search of water
Water Found On The Moon
Trace amounts of water detected on the moon’s surface by a comet-bound NASA probe, a robotic mission to Saturn, and a U.S. instrument aboard an Indian Chandrayaan probe. Researchers says that this can be a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon.
Source: India hails Moon mission ‘find’
